The Jester of Apocalypse

Chapter 26: Miscalculation

“Hmm?” Gabrias frowned and lifted his hand to grab the cloaked figure’s attention.

“What is it?”

“He… He stopped. No, wait… He is running back to the town.”

“Are you certain? No, that isn’t unusual. He is probably trying to hide in town. There is no way he can tell how we are tracking him. He likely judged that being in the wilderness would be to his disadvantage. It doesn’t matter. He can’t run away forever anyway.”

Gabrias, however, didn’t quite agree with that assessment. There was something unusual about that child. He could tell those weren’t the movements of someone running back just to hide in the town. But he kept that to himself. If the child was insane or suicidal, that only worked better for them.

***

Neave ran back at full speed towards the town. But eventually, he slowed down a bit. There was no rush. He had something he wanted to do first. He bent down to the grass and started grazing. He ate the grass straight from the ground like a farm animal. If his life force reached the maximum his body could handle, it slowly dissipated until it returned to the usual amounts.

Key word: slowly.

He could maintain a surplus for a while if he controlled the life force. Neave would need as much life force as he could get with what he was attempting to do now. There was also the bonus of having a surplus of calories in his body. He never knew. Small advantages added up.

He wasn’t sure how well he would do against this group. Compared to the time he fought Kaphor, he was a little stronger but also missing an arm. He was tempted to quickly pick one of the spirit powers from the ring and try to finish a spirit trial, but that would be a rash decision. He didn’t want to compromise with too many spirit powers.

He didn’t want to compromise with any of his spirit powers. And the monster cores he had access to were frighteningly underwhelming. Even though he would have a massive advantage in spirit trials, he was still only a foundation realm cultivator. Given that he couldn’t rely on spirit powers while inside a spirit trial, he would eventually still reach a limit on how difficult a spirit trial he could handle. So, for now, he settled for extra life force and energy.

Neave got off the ground. He stretched and flexed his muscles. He took off the cloak and put it in the dimension ring. It would only slow him down. All he wore now was a plain white linen shirt and sturdy wool pants. His left sleeve hung empty to his side as he gave a few practice swings to the greatsword.

Good.

It was time to begin.

Neave sprinted towards the town wall and used a movement technique to make it to the other side. He took a look around and found none of the people hunting him. His spirit senses were overloaded by the scores of people walking through the main streets. But he didn’t have to find his targets. They just had to find him.

He jumped out into the main street and yelled.

“Hey, fuckers! It’s me! Are you looking for me? Well, I am right here! Come on out! No need to be scared!”

Suddenly, from the shadows behind Neave, a figure appeared. A cultivator wielding an ominous dagger in one hand, still partially wrapped in shadow. Neave couldn’t tell whether it was a man or a woman as their thick white cloak and mask hid all their features.

Neave was caught off guard, as he hadn’t sensed the cultivator before they appeared, so he wasn’t prepared to respond appropriately. He threw out a quick true strike to parry the blow, but the backlash made his wrists bend from the stress.

He quickly regained his footing and used a movement technique to get behind the shadowy figure's back. An arrow flew from one of the rooftops, whistling as a small whirlwind of air spun around it, and it grazed Neave’s left side of the body. Neave stepped back as the shadowy figure before him was about to attack him again and used some of his life force to stop the bleeding.

The people around them screamed for the guards and ran for their lives. The guards arrived soon after but immediately joined the civilians.

Best to avoid getting involved in stuff like that.

One of the cultivators, a person Neave had injured back in the mansion, appeared from behind one of the buildings and ran at Neave. Three more people wearing the same outfit emerged from the small alleys and ran toward him.

Neave heard another arrow flying toward him, and he dodged, simultaneously appearing behind the shadowy figure's back. He wanted to use the most decisive attack, but the shadowy figure was already turning around as they had immediately spotted him. Neave clicked his tongue and resorted to another quick true strike. It left a shallow cut on the cultivator's back.

Yet another person appeared, jumping from a building next to Neave, wielding a longsword. They swung the long sword at Neave, but Neave dodged out of the way. The strike missed and shattered the stone paving of the road.

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One of the figures ran towards Neave and threw out a punch. Neave used a true strike to parry it. The punch held such tremendous force behind it that the shockwave it sent out collapsed the wall next to them. Neave suffered a severe backlash from parrying the strike and attempted to create some distance.

One of the cultivators that had appeared previously instantly sped up. They moved so fast towards Neave that he couldn’t respond to their attacks on time. He took a punch to the chest, the stomach, and a hard kick to his leg. He twisted in the air to minimize the damage from the punches, but the kick broke Neave’s femur and flung him away toward the middle of the road.

Neave bit the hilt of his sword to keep it in place as he manually adjusted the bone in his leg with his arm. Then he used life force to reseal the bone back together. He plopped to the ground rather disgracefully and hurried to get up. The fast cultivator ran out of steam, and Neave prepared to capitalize on the moment of weakness but had to dodge another insanely fast arrow that once again grazed the side of his torso.

At this very moment, the cultivator with the insanely powerful punch landed one of those punches on Neave's side. He felt his entire body contort as he went flying away. Rather than hit a wall or land on the ground, the shadowy figure from before appeared in his path and stabbed him with the dagger.

Neave fell to the ground, barely conscious, as he felt his life draining from his body.

YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND! THIS IS THE GIMMICK OF THE EIGHTH WAVE! YOU ONLY GET ONE ATTEMPT!

He couldn’t let himself die here.

“We have immobilized him, but I believe he had suffered too much damage to survive much longer. We will restrain him and administer first aid.”

The shadowy figure addressed someone. The rest hurried toward them.

So they want to restrain me?

They must envy my freedom.

No.

They must envy my chains.

Neave focused every remaining bit of consciousness that he could. He was not in a position to execute a true strike, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do damage. He only needed to do a little bit.

He swung the sword, investing a bit of his life force into making the attack as strong as possible. He caught the shadowy figure off guard as he cut three fingers off their hand. The shadowy figure screamed in surprise and fright, jumping back in panic to make some distance from Neave.

All the cultivators watched in horror as Neave ate the severed fingers off the ground.

Silver path cultivators sure have a lot of life force in their bodies.

He used the life force to patch up his most severe injuries. His entire body was in agony and far from fully recovered. But the pain he could endure.

Immediately all of the cultivators sprinted at Neave, no longer underestimating him. Neave healed the most urgent wounds and got up to his feet, dodging another one of the wind arrows in the process. Neave ran toward his assailants. They readied themselves to strike as Neave took one, two delicate steps, jumped, and disappeared.

Then he appeared behind them. Their moment of shock left a small opening for Neave, and he used it to his advantage. A true strike landed on one of the cultivators' necks, cutting the jugular vein open.

“Shit!” They screamed, blood spewing out of their mouth.

Neave dodged another arrow, and the swordsman took a swing at Neave.

What shitty swordsmanship.

Neave scoffed at the mighty but poorly executed blow as he dodged out of the way. One of the cultivators sped up again, but Neave immediately made eye contact with them. They froze briefly, chills running down their spine at Neave’s predatory gaze, but soon regained their resolve and rushed to Neave. The figure sped up, getting ready to pummel Neave once again.

Neave feigned a dodge but immediately shifted into a swift true strike. The cultivator wasn't expecting Neave to attack, and at their current speed, they couldn't slow down or avoid the attack. Neave's sword met the fast figure’s neck, not decapitating it but sinking into it and severing the spinal cord. Their body instantly went limp.

“You fucking bastard!” Another one of the cultivators ran at Neave, swinging a mighty fist at him.

Neave wanted to parry the strike but canceled the parry at the last moment as the cultivator’s hand turned into solid crystal. He almost lost his sword. Neave took a step back and appeared just a bit behind. He appeared behind the person he had injured in the mansion.

He swung his sword, and a fast true strike added another shallow cut to their back. Suddenly, the archer fired four arrows in a row. Neave managed to dodge three, but the fourth hit his stomach and embedded itself into his gut. Neave had moved to ensure the arrow didn't hit any critical areas.

Two of the cultivators ran at Neave again, and he noted that one of them was the one that could crystalize their body.

The cloaks made them look virtually indistinguishable, and they hid their qi. But the cloaks weren’t fully optimized for hiding life force. Neave could still sense subtle differences between them and tell them apart.

Neave tried to surprise them by using a movement technique coupled with a true strike kick to the head, but they crystallized their head, too, mitigating most of the attack. The shadowy figure appeared again, but Neave sensed them moments before they did.

They slashed at Neave with the dagger, but Neave parried the dagger blow, using the recoil from the parry and the recoil from the failed kick to set up a more decisive true kick to their wrist, breaking it. This injury, coupled with the severed fingers, left the cultivator unable to wield their dagger.

Neave twisted in the air to dodge another arrow. The swordsman appeared the moment Neave dodged. Neave did his best to avoid most of the attack, but the sword still cut half his left foot off. He used some life force to stop the bleeding.

Neave could tell they thought they had him now. The pain alone should stop him from using a movement technique, right?

Pain could not stop him from doing anything.

Neave landed on the ground, used a massively expensive movement technique, and appeared on top of the house behind the archer.

The cultivator standing next to Gabrias had a communication spirit power and was in charge of coordinating the attack. The moment they saw Neave appear behind the archer, they panicked hard.

“No! behind you!”

Too late. A true strike through the heart ended the archer on the spot.

Neave looked down from the building as the scattered cultivators stared at him in shock. He grinned. Then he lifted his sword. Suddenly, they could hear a terrible, deep vibration coming from him. The dust and debris around him picked up in a whirlwind, and sparks of electricity flickered through the air around him.

Neave used a movement technique to appear behind one of the cultivators. Then he decapitated them. The rest scrambled, and the man on the wall screamed at them to get their shit together. Too late again.

The crystal cultivator ran out of formation and rushed Neave, but Neave used the opening the man’s rash decision created to appear next to the shadowy cultivator. The injured one and the swordsman rushed Neave to intercept him, collapsing their formation entirely.

Neave dodged another sword slash as he landed several true strikes, cutting their throat, wrists, and femoral arteries open. The shadowy cultivator kicked their dagger at Neave since they couldn’t carry it.

Neave couldn’t dodge it in time and got another object embedded in his gut.

The injured one struck out at Neave, but Neave parried the attack. Yet another one of the cultivators rushed at Neave as the shadowy figure threw out kicks at Neave from behind.

Neave dodged a kick and cut the throat of the person pressing the attack on him. The swordsman was getting dizzy from the excessive blood loss, so Neave used the moment to appear behind them and stab them in the back of the head.

“You… You damned!” The shadowy figure snapped and ran at Neave, but Neave used a true strike to decapitate them.

“Shit! Those fucking morons!” The individual orchestrating the fight was seriously panicking now.

They have lost far too many of their group to this child. They weren’t expecting to lose any forces at all! Now there were only three of them left! They had to salvage this situation somehow. Their only saving grace was that this child seemed to be worth the effort they’d invested in capturing him. What kind of insane secret did that book hold?

As he thought this, one of the last three remaining fighters panicked. Their hands glowed.

“No, don’t you fucking dare! We need that child alive!”

“Stay the hell away from me!” The cultivator yelled as bright fire gathered and concentrated in their hands.

Neave merely stood and grinned. As the cultivator prepared to throw the spirit power at Neave, Neave slowly swung his sword downwards. The blast flew at Neave, and the true strike that met it looked like it cut the entire explosion in two. Neave couldn’t entirely avoid the blow, and neither could the person he had injured back at the mansion.

The fire seared Neave’s skin. His ears and eyes were burned. He stood, alive, but just barely. He couldn’t see, and he couldn’t hear.

He sensed the waning qi from the figure lying beside Neave’s feet. He walked over to them. Neave bent over and bit their neck, sucking the blood out. As his body filled with life force, he grew back his skin, fixed his ears, and recovered his eyes. He had to stop since he felt if he absorbed any more of anything, he would be doing more damage than he would be fixing.

“M–Monster… You’re a damn monster!” The explosive power wielder prepared to use another blast, but Neave was in front of them in seconds.

And soon after, their head lay on the ground. The last person hesitated. It was the one that could crystalize their body. Neave stared at them.

They turned around to run. Every hair on their body stood as they felt the pressure of Neave’s strike behind them. Immediately, they crystallized their entire body. Neave's strike landed, but the impact was absorbed, and Neave’s sword snapped in two.

“That was close…” It was a man’s voice.

Neave walked in front of him.

“Old man, that is quite the spirit power you have. I can not imagine you could be using it without any consequences.”

The man winced at Neave’s words but stayed silent.

“Well, I don't care anyway.” Neave took a stance.

He moved slowly, but how he pulled his fist back felt like it was pulling mountains out of the earth. His foot landed on the ground with a resonant thud. Immediately, all the dust and debris were blown away. The man was panicking, contemplating his options, but he couldn’t move.

Once he crystallized a part of his body, it took a while before he could undo it.

And that while increased a lot for crystalizing the whole body.

Neave’s fist moved ponderously through the air as golden runes shone all around them, brighter than the sun. He loaded his spirit with life force in advance, preparing for the severe impact that was about to come. His fist made contact with the man’s body.

The impact shattered the nearby stone, and the shockwave spread hairline cracks through the entire road. The man’s body was blown away into hundreds of bits, which returned to ordinary flesh, blood, and gore raining all over the street.

Neave coughed out blood. He could barely keep himself awake.

He felt like something was wrong with him. His entire body was sluggish, and his spirit felt heavy. The life force flowed through his body like molasses, where it usually flowed like water. He had to move. So he took a few steps, one by one. He sped up as he got used to the weird feeling.

Neave disappeared between the buildings.

“Gabrias! We have to go!”

Garbias stood frozen, the terrifying brutality he had witnessed seared into his eyes.

“No… I mean, I can’t. I am only on the bronze path and do not have any movement techniques or mobility spirit powers! I can't just jump off the wall!”

The man was about to object but clicked his tongue instead and jumped off the wall. Try as he may, he couldn’t find Neave anywhere without Gabrias' help.

Soon enough, Gabrias sensed Neave again appearing on the other side of the town wall.

Gabrias stared into the distance.

The sight of the bloody, tattered child filled him with dread.

It was like watching an ember drop into dry grass.

That boy, no… That monster, free in the wilderness…

…Would burn everything to the ground.